Exeter mother raised £20k for hospital after her baby son died from errors covered up

“This story would be shocking if it wasn’t so commonplace. My colleagues and I always ask clients who may have experienced poor medical care to raise questions informally first, usually in the form of an NHS Complaint. Open and honest admissions of fault are very rarely made, but we have a very high success rate when those matters later become legal claims. In other words, hospitals and GP surgeries will regularly admit negligence several years and thousands of pounds into a formal legal claim even though they denied everything at the outset. Concerns about the cost to the taxpayer of medical claims, often highlighted in the Daily Mail, need to look at how much money, time and heartache could be saved by recognising much earlier that mistakes were made.

It is particularly sad that before Niki Cunningham learned the truth about Harry she put so much effort into raising money for the hospital responsible. My sympathies go out to her and her family and I hope the latest development goes some small way towards dealing with this tragedy”